KOKODRAWINGS

Because the whole situation about that infamous mission is very weird. The only thing that we objectively know about it is that Sakumo saved his teammates instead of finishing the mission, and as a consequence, he bacame the village pariah.

A few thoughts about this.

First: Sakumo was a very famous, powerful and renowned shinobi; the mission he participated in must had been extremely important.

Second: People, in general, are very indifferent, passive and self-centered. Most people don't care about something unless that thing affects them directly (It's not a negative trait exactly, it's just the way we humans are: we just aren't able to care about everything all at once. As an example, we can see this clearly when someone who never thought twice about a certain illness is suddendly diagnosed with it (or a loved one is). Afterwards they're the most passionate person about the cause and try to raise awareness about it. It's normal, it's human nature. You care about the things that affect you).

All of this to say that it's weird that both shinobi AND civilians (plus the teammates he saved!) are shunning Sakumo.

It's especially weird that the civilians do because most of them probably don't care at all about shinobi business (as an example, they only shun Naruto because of his link with the Kyubi's attack where many of their loved ones died or got hurt. And even then, it can be argued that by the time Naruto as a series starts, people dislike him more for being a nuisance and a loudmouth than for being the Kyubi's jinchuriki. Again, I'm talking about the manga, Naruto's childhood is very different in the anime)

Following this train of though, if the civilians are shunning Sakumo it's because what he did affected them in some capacity, and not precisely in a good way.

And what could this terribly thing be that makes everyone (including the peole he saved) hate Sakumo's guts? In my opinion, war.

Konoha was still licking its wounds from the Second War and the ashes remained hot enough that the slightest spark could reignite another conflict at any moment. I think Sakumo was sent on a mission to try and prevent, or at the very least postpone, the next war as much as possible (maybe they had to secure extremely important intel related to it) and his failure meant opening the doors to another war, to the Third War.

No wonder he became Konoha's pariah, most people probably were blaming him for dragging Konoha into another war (things are not so simple and Sakumo completing the mission wouldn't exactly mean that Konoha wouldn't enter another war, but he was the perfect scapegoat).

This also fits nicely with my portrayal of Minato (and even with the series' own canon): when Obito asks Minato about Sakumo, we never learn Minato's opinion about that whole mess.

Yes, I'm sure he wanted Obito to form his own opinion without impossing his own, but I also get the impression that he just doesn't agree with the decisions Sakumo took: Minato wouldn't have put the lives of anyone above such an important mission. Which is what makes him a perfect Hokage candidate (let's not forget that this is the guy who condemned his soul to eternal damnation for the village)

That said, Minato is... a curious character in the Naruto world, in my opinion. He is clever, talented, powerful (we as a fandom don't talk enough about the fact that Minato, at just age 10, defeated a bunch of high ranked Cloud shinobi sent to Konoha to kidnap the Jinchuriki. Like, that's crazy. Why the ANBU didn't intervene is another can of worms we can open in another ocassion), kind (I also like to portray him as very sassy) and very, very good at being a ninja and having absolutely 0 issues with it.

He's also ruthless, and I think it says a lot about his character how damn much he thrives in such a dark and bloody world as the shinobi one. If we go with the canon, he arguably lost his parents and his two teammates from Team Jiraiya, plus two of his students, and yet, he's probably one the most well-adjusted shinobi in the whole series. But what does that says about him, I wonder?

In contrast, Orochimaru develops some serious issues due to his parents' deaths, while Tsunade ends up deeply traumatized after the deaths of her brother and lover. Minato though? Not a single tear shed (maybe only when he's feeling particularly sentimental)

And although some people might not like this, Minato is also extremely nationalistic, as we saw in the manga (just like the rest of the Hokage, to be fair. Let's not forget that part where Hashirama says “I will kill my own child if they become a danger to Konoha". I think most of the Hokage are definitely in that camp, with the exception, funnily enough, of Hiruzen).

So no, if Minato came back to life and saw how Konoha treated Naruto (which, to be fair, the filler made everything much worse than it was in the manga), he wouldn't destroy Konoha and make the village pay as I see some people say. That doesn't mean he wouldn't put some people in their places.

And related to this, I actually don't think Minato agrees with the whole "In the ninja world, those who break the rules are trash, but those who abandon their friends are worse than trash"?? Like, I'm sorry, but if breaking the rules (or in this case, abandoning the mission) means putting Konoha in danger (like arguably Sakumo did. That's another big can of worms we can open another day), then you're indeed worse than trash. No one is more important than Konoha as a whole.

All of this doesn't mean he isn't extremely loving and caring towards his loved ones, because he is (unlike some people think, being ruthless in the battlefield doesn't mean you can't love your family, smh).

There's also this tendency in fandom (not Naruto in particular, just fandoms in general) of associating traditional feminine traits (being kind, gentle, sweet, soft/soft-spoken) with being a househusband/housewife and having 0 goals in life outside housework. I don't wanna say it's sexist, but... it kind of carries sexist undertones?? No, alternate universe!Minato from a filler movie being a competent adult and a good partner and doing his share of the housework doesn't mean he wants to be a househusband.

It's perfectly fine to be a househusband/housewife if that's something you actually want to do (like Hinata, for example. Minato clearly doesn't; he was very clear about wanting to be a shinobi and Hokage from an early age), but to get that role assigned to you simply because you're sweet and kind? Ngl, it kind of gives me the creeps so that's a big no for me lol. My Minato is kind, soft, sweet yet talented, powerful and very successful in his career of choice: murder lol. No character flanderization for Minato in this blog 😌

(The same can be said about Kushina, btw: she wouldn't have been a housewife if she had lived. Sorry Kishimoto, you don't know her as well as I do xD)

I think I'm gonna stop here because I'm starting to ramble and I could go on forever lmao.